The Project
by tanteTaco
Summary: The story behind Chris, my OC mad scientist (who is not very original...)


Chris sat in her lab, doing a few final tests with what equipment she hadn't packed up yet. She wasn't sure how successful this test was going to be, but with the money the military was providing her, she had to try. She sat, writing down things as she worked with one of the inner cores of her rocket. A brown cat hopped up on her desk, walking right over her papers.

"Come on, Madame. You know how important this is." The cat stopped to stare at Chris, before moving off her papers to sit next to them. "Now that's a good kitty." Chris said, petting her behind the ear. "You promise you'll be good while I'm gone right?" She asked, wagging her finger at the cat. It just sat there, staring at her goggles. "Good girl." Chris said, ruffling her hair before going back to work.

"Say Madame, do you think I would be still able to get the explosion I want using less powder?" She said, holding up the core to examine it. Madame just sat, licking herself. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She dropped the core on the desk, putting her hands in her greased back hair. "I just need one more month, but nooooo. That's too good for the United States Army. No, we must have it in exactly 6 months." She turned to Madame.

"You see, this is why people like me, scientists need to be in charge. We understand the complex because we live in the complex. These small minded soldiers only think of how soon they can get the biggest and baddest weapon to destroy their newest 'threat'. That is not how this world is supposed to work!" She sat there fuming, angry at everyone. Madame came over and started to lick her face, and Chris started to calm. "I think you're right. Let's go to bed." She got up and walked over to a cot she had in a corner, and promptly collapsed. Madame jumped up and curled up on Chris' chest. She knew it was the last time she was going to see her owner for a while.

"Can I get you anything?" a cheery steward asked. Chris looked up, examining the girl. Blonde hair down to her scapula, green eyes, pupils not dilated, a rather small mouth, freckles. Probably 5 feet 4 inches tall and 120 pounds. Chris continued to stare at the girl, examining her, and soon the steward got uncomfortable. "Miss?" She asked. The steward couldn't see Chris' eyes behind the goggles and it disturbed her. Finally she gulped, and moved on to the next person.

"Well, seems you are having fun staring down our attendants." Brigadier General Houtz said as he approached.

"Sorry, it's a habit." This general had very square shoulders that were not the uniforms fault.

"Alrighty then." He sat down on the seat opposite Chris'. "So, you ready to show us what you got?"

"As I have told you a total of six times, no I am not. I didn't have enough time to even make a design, so I had to try and perfect one of my original prototypes. You also haven't given me sufficient time to work out all the problems and have not permitted me a place to even test it out at. But like all thick-skulled army men, you have fought enough wars to know that I am incorrect."

At this, Houtz started to laugh, a deep throaty laugh. "Wow, you got some words in ya. Guess that's why we hired you." He stood up and patted her on the shoulder before walking away. They had only been in the air for forty two minutes and she already wanted to go back home. She decided that since she was on such a nice plane, the least she could do was look around. Chris unbuckled from her seat and made her way up to the cockpit.

The pilot was older than the copilot, probably by about 18 years. She could tell just from the lines on the back of their necks and the way their hair looked. "How long till we get there?" Chris asked, making the copilot turn.

"Hey, you shouldn't be back here." He said, standing up to take her back.

"I asked a simple question. Might you please answer it?" The copilot paused.

"We've only been in the air for a few minutes. We've still got aways to go."

"I didn't ask how long we had been flying for, I asked how long till we get there."

"Right. Um, probably about... twelve more hours." He said.

"Alright." She turned and walked out, hands in her pockets. The copilot watched her leave then returned to his seat. There was something scary about her.

Chris decided to look in the few rooms they had on the giant plane. The first one was a conference room with a stunning view of all the cummulus clouds underneath them. There wasn't much in it, all packed up for the flight. She closed the door and proceeded to the next room. Inside, Houtz and a skinnier man were standing around a desk. He was obviously a lieutenant due to the badges. Tall, but nothing more than that.

"Well, if it ain't the woman of the hour." Houtz said with a giant smile. The tall boy just stared at her. "Do you need something?"

"No, just exploring." She turned to leave, but Houtz stopped her.

"How about you explain this new weapon to us?" He started to drag her into the room. She hated it when people called her creations "weapons." That was never their original purpose. "Lieutenant, this is Christopher Lee, the greatest rocket scientist in the world. Don't let her gender confuse you, she could probably blow ya up right now if she wanted." He said as he laughed.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Christopher. My name is Christopher also, but I tend to go by my middle name, Clark." He extended a hand for her to shake. She grabbed it and shook, then quickly let go. Just what she needed, someone to tell her that she had a guy's name.

"Please, just call me Chris." She said. He nodded, and the three of them stood around, waiting for someone to say something.

"So, explain how your little rocket works." Houtz said, motioning to the table. All the blueprints she had sent off for the past few months were laid out for in front of them.

"I have. Three times. You don't understand enough about quantum mechanics to understand any of it."

"Alright alright. Maybe you can show it to Clark. He's a chemist. Might understand at least something you say." More laughter. "Well, I'll leave you two alone." He turned and walked out of the room. Chris turned to look over the blueprints, and noticed Clark over her shoulder.

"Have you already looked over these, or do I need to start with what the rocket looks like to help you comprehend things better?"

"Um, well, I've glanced at them a bit. Nothing much because they are always under security." More silence as the both continued to look over the prints. "So, why are you using powder here?" He asked, pointing to the core.

"The 2-K7 has been designed so that when fired, it goes up into the thermosphere and stays there till it is over its target. Most substances would freeze up there, and impact wouldn't thaw them out enough to give the correct explosion. Because of the sulfur in the powder, it doesn't have to thaw out completely to still explode. That's why."

"I don't know. That seems like a step backwards, not a step forwards. Can't you do this using nuclear or-"

"I won't have that crap anywhere near my rockets for as long as I live!" She roared, slamming her hand on the table. Clark took a step back, ready to excuse himself when she turned to him. "I'm not completely sure this will work, but we won't be able to tell until I get a test." All the anger had left almost as soon as it had come.

"Wait, you haven't tested it? How do you know it's safe for use?"

"I don't. When Houtz asked what I needed, he denied me two things: a location where I could do tests and a longer amount of time to work. This test launch in India is going to be the first time I see it fly, and if anything goes wrong, I won't be able to fix it." More silence as they stood around looking at the blueprints.

"Your breathing is starting to get slower, and your eyes aren't open as wide as they have been. You are tired, and I suggest you go to sleep."

"Huh, guess I am tired." He responded. "You should get some sleep too before we land." He walked over to the door and held it up for her, but she had started to scribble on the prints. "Hey don't do that." he said.

"My designs, I can alter them if I want. Go sleep." She shooed him away, and continued to write. These things were sadly out of date, and she needed to get them fixed up.

"Here we are, sunny India." Houtz said as they got off the plane. "Let me introduce you to who's in charge. He's really excited to see this thing fly." They stepped off and started walking through two lines of soldiers, all saluting them as they walked into one of the many hangers.

"Sir, I asked for a scientist, not your daughter playing dress up." A man said walking up to them. Brown hair in standard crew cut, blue eyes, tanned skin from the sun, 5'8', 164 pounds. Lieutenant General.

"This is your scientist. Say hello to Christopher Lee."

"Christopher is a boy's name, and this is a girl. Now get her out of here."

"That helicopter isn't working is it?" She asked. The man turned to look at her. "Blades are spinning only at 90 RPM, and a helicopter of that size needs at least 200." She walked over, climbed up on top of it, and started to work with the wires near the base of the blades.

"Oi, what the hell ya doing? Get down from there!" The Lieutenant General yelled. She continued to work, and after a few minutes, said something to one of the pilots as she crawled down. He started up the helicopter, and the blades started to spin at the speed they were supposed to. She walked back to join the two generals.

"So you can fix a helicopter. I still don't like the idea of a girl building us rockets." He said.

"I'm sorry to shatter the image you had when you heard my name. It isn't my fault I was given a boy's name, it isn't my fault that I can understand things really easily, and It isn't my fault that you can't win this war without my help. Now go unload my stuff while I go and fix more machinery that your incompetent men can't." With that, she walked off towards a series of tanks.

"Wow that chick has a mouth." The Lieutenant General said.

"Better believe it. As smart as they come, as you can tell ."

"She ever take those goggles off?"

"Haven't seen them off her face in the past few months. I'm sure she does though."

Chris worked to try and instal her rocket in the testing facility before midnight. Tomorrow morning they were going to fire it, and it had to be perfect.

"I told them I don't need any help. Please leave me to my work." Clark was surprised since she didn't even turn around to look.

"I didn't come to help, I came to talk." He waited for a few seconds then sat down at the bottom of the ladder Chris was standing on. It was completely dark, yet she still had the goggles on. "So, how did you get into rockets?" He asked.

"Someone said the word 'Sputnik,' I thought it sounded funny. Learned later it was a satellite. I became obsessed with them until I found out about the landing on the moon. I've probably watched that landing 528 times. Decided I was going to do that. Then I did it."

"Interesting... So, why did the army contact you?"

"They had seen some of the designs I had sent over to NASA. They only saw weapons, which some of them were, and decided that I needed to make more rockets for them, and just for them."

"Ok." He sat and listened as she walked around her ladder, screwing things in. Finally she came down, and went over to a panel on the side to finish the wiring. "So, why do you always wear goggles? Like, I haven't seen you without them."

"Madame gave them to me as a Christmas present. I also like that no one can see my eyes. Whenever I meet someone, I tend to examine them. I take note of height, weight, hair style and color, things like that. No reason why, I just do. Nice to know they can't see me doing it."

"Wait, who is Madame?" This got Chris to smile.

"Madame is my cat. She's like me, extraordinarily smart." She closed the panel and climbed back up her ladder to work on the top.

"I'll say..."

"You have the build of a runner, and it looks like your arms struggle to carry all the equipment. Why did you join the army when you would have been better suited for the navy?"

"I did it for my dad. He was in the army and fought in Romania. He lost his leg there, but he didn't mind. He would come home from work and tell us stories about his time over there. My sister Melissa and I used to listen to them all the time in awe. I decided that I was going to join the army and tell my children stories just like him one day." Chris looked down and saw Clark staring off into space with a grin on his face. She continued to work in silence. "What's your family like?"

"Horrible." She said.

"Really? Sorry. How so?"

"My dad used to get drunk and beat me. My mom was always so high that she couldn't do anything. Even if she wasn't she wouldn't."

"Why not?"

"She didn't want me. I always tell people my name is Christopher because it was the main character in a book I read. Truth is, my mom named me Christopher because she wanted a boy. When she found out I was a girl, she began to smoke and basically quit on me."

"Wow, I'm so sorry." Clark said.

"Don't be. There was and is nothing you can do. Even if you built a time machine, if you went back and saved me, I wouldn't be me. We would probably never meet, and a paradox would be formed."

Clark chuckled. "You think like that all the time?" Chris hopped off the ladder and looked at him.

"Yeah, I do." She turned and walked back to the base. Clark got up and chased after her

"Wait, you're just going to leave this thing here? What if something happens to find it and activate it?"

"What you are looking at is a shell. I'm not going to install the core till tomorrow. Because, you are right. What if the thing goes off? It's a simple install, and should only take about seventeen minutes." They continued to walk in silence.

"Well, goodnight Clark. I'll see you in the morning." She bowed, and then entered her room. Clark sighed and left for his room.

"So Ms. Christopher Lee." The Lieutenant General said.

"Please, call me Chris, Mr. Lieutenant General."

"Alright Chris." He said with a sneer. "Let's see your wonderful rocket fly." Chris nodded, and grabbed the core. She looked through the entire thing to make sure it had not been tampered with since the previous night, and finally put the core in. After instal, she ran back into the bunkers. "You sure this thing is going to work?" He asked.

"I am not going to answer since none of you seem to listen." She said, running over everything in her mind.

"Alright. Firing in ten... nine... eight..." Chris watched as the base of the 2-K7 lit up, preparing for take-off. "two... one... zero." The engines roared as it prepared to go airborne. It hovered for a few moments about a foot above the ground before soaring up into the sky. The bunker broke out in cheers from the successful launch.

"Sir, we are tracking it entering the stratosphere." A man said from a computer.

"Very good. Come, let's go celebrate a successful launch." Everyone slowly piled out of the bunker except for Chris.

"Hey, you coming?" Clark said, running over to her. She was just staring at the launch pad.

"We need to evacuate the area." She said, turning to run after the general. "It hovered. That shouldn't have happened. It's not going to make it, and it's going to default back here."

"Are you sure?" Clark said, running next to her.

"Clark, haven't you learned that I am never sure?" They ran until they found the Lieutenant General. "Sir, we need to evacuate everyone immediately."

"What for?" He asked, staring mainly at Clark.

"Something is wrong. I don't know what yet, but that thing isn't going to make it to the troposphere and might land back here."

"Do you have any proof?" He asked, bending over to look her right in the goggles.

"No sir." She said after a minute.

"Then no evac. It's not going to land here because of forces like Coriolis. Don't you know anything you silly little girl?" He grinned, and turned on his heels to leave.

"He could be right. I mean, there is a very little chance that it will land back here." Clark said. He glanced over at Chris. Her fists were clenched as rage boiled up inside of her. "Hey, you ok?"

"No I am not ok!" She barked turning to Clark. "I am not and have never in my entire life been ok! You want to know why? Because we're playing poker and everyone is cheating, but I'm the one getting caught for playing fair!" She turned and punched the wall as hard as she could, then stood panting.

"Chris, your knuckles are bleeding." She didn't say anything. Clark pulled out a med kit from his knee pouch and started to bandage her up. "You don't get angry very often do you." Chris slowly shook her head, looking at her feet. "You don't show much emotion as it is." She shook her head again. "Why is that?" There was silence as she thought of a response.

"Probably because emotions are something I just can't understand. I mean, I can point them out and I can replicate them, but I don't understand them." Clark finished bandaging her up, but continued to hold her hand.

"How about after this, you and Madame come and live with me. I have a nice house out in Montana. Lot's of open space and freedom. I think it would do you some good." She looked up at him and nodded. He smiled back. Suddenly she froze.

"I know what's wrong." She grabbed his hand, and they ran back to the bunkers. "It's going to land. I know what's wrong, and it's going to land." They were only a few feet away when they saw it. They both dove into the bunker right as it hit the ground and detonated. Chris laid as flat as she could as the glass to the bunker was blown out from the impact. She laid there with her hands over her head, waiting for the aftershocks to finish.

"Clark, you ok?"once it was finally silent and still. She sat up and twisted to look at him. Her heart sank when she saw he wasn't in the room. She stood up and ran outside the bunker. A few yards away was a body, lying completely motionless. She ran over and saw Clark, crumpled on the ground. She fell to her knees and stared at him. He was the first human to ever understand her. She just sat there, staring at his lifeless face.

"You, come with me." She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see the Lieutenant General. She stood up and he dragged her across the base to an interrogation room. He threw her in and locked the door.

"Just tell us why you did it. That's all we want to know." A man named Kent had been sitting across from Chris for the past hour, trying to get her to talk. She just sat there, unresponsive. "Do you know how many people that missile of yours killed? It killed ten men, and many others were injured. What do you have to say about that?" She just sat there. He sighed and gave up. She wasn't going to say anything, no matter what he did.

"I knew we shouldn't have brought her on the base." Lieutenant General said.

"I don't think she did it on purpose." Kent said. "I think it just malfunctioned."

"As if. This was probably her plan from the very beginning." He huffed, and walked away. Kent went to the other side of the two way window and stared at Chris. She was extremely interesting. He suddenly had an idea and went in.

"Hi." He said, not expecting a response. He sat back down in his chair. "I get it, you don't want to talk with me about what happened. But, can you talk with me? Like, tell me a little bit about you." She didn't move. "My name is Kent Speurder. I'm a detective from D.C. I've been in India for the past two years. I head home next month to my wonderful wife and daughter. Would you like to see a picture?" Chris just sat there, so he pulled out his wallet.

"That's my wife, Penelope." He pointed to a beautiful brunette. "And my daughter Marie." He moved his finger to a girl about the age of 8. She looked like Kent. "What about you?" He asked as he put his wallet back in his pocket. "Anyone? Anything?" She just wouldn't speak, let alone move. He couldn't even tell if she was awake with the goggles on. He sighed and got up to leave. It was worth a try.

"Good strategy." She said just as Kent reach the door. He turned his head to look at her. "Congratulations, you got me to talk. It was smart to try and get to know the person you're interrogating. Better than just repeating the same question." Kent started to walk back to his seat, watching her. "See, when someone doesn't talk, and you just keep asking the same question, two things happen. Either yes, they crack open and tell you everything just so that you will stop asking. The problem is there are some people that start to tune you out, and the more you ask, the less they hear. But showing them you are human is a great first step."

"If you know all this, why are you telling me?" Kent asked as he sat down. "You've been silent for so long..."

"Why would I talk? No one listens to me. I'm a girl with goggles. People can't get past that and don't listen."

"That can't be completely true."

"It is. I told the Lieutenant General that the thing was coming back and that we needed to evacuate the base. He refused because I had no proof. I would have thought that if someone told you a missile had even a slight chance of landing on your location, you would immediately seek cover or get away. But he heard this information from a girl, and blew it off. I also told Brigadier General Houtz that I needed more time to finish my work and he denied me, saying that 6 months was plenty of time. People don't listen when I'm talking and they 'know' they are right.'"

"So, you didn't plan to blow up the base?" Chris stood up and leaned across the table till Kent couldn't look anywhere but at her goggles.

"I. Did not. Do this. On purpose." She leaned back and sat down. Kent nodded, then got up and left.

Chris opened up the door and walked into her lab. At least they had allowed her to grab her few things. "Madame, you here?" She asked. She folded up her cot as the brown cat came in through the open window. "Sorry honey, but we have to go." She grabbed the bed and walked out with the cat at her heels.

"Is that really all you have?" Houtz asked. Chris just ignored him and put the bed down in the car. She then picked up Madame and placed her inside and sat down herself. Houtz closed the door and got in the car. The car ride was silent as they drove through downtown D.C. and out onto the highway. He was going to drive her back home to Chicago.

"Just tell me if we need to stop for that cat of yours. I don't want her going in my car." He looked in the rear view mirror. She was looking out the window at the passing scenery with the cat curled up on her lap. He knew this was going to be a long trip back to Chicago.

Chris sat staring out the window as she reflected on what had happened. None of it was her fault, but she got blamed for it. If only they had given her enough time, she could have gotten it to work. Why didn't anyone listen to her? She knew what she was saying and what she was doing!

Madame felt Chris' hand tensing on her shoulder. She got up and started to lick Chris' cheek, but she just pushed the cat away. Madame laid down on the folded up cot and waited for her to calm down. But Chris wasn't going to calm. She was angered at what the army had done to her. She wanted everything to be set straight.

"Let's stop here for lunch." Houtz pulled up into the parking lot of an iHop. He parked, and opened the car for Chris, but she didn't move. "Come on, you gotta eat. Your parents won't be happy if-"

"My parents are never happy." She said. "If I'm in your life, you are not happy. But not because I did something wrong, it's because you won't listen." She turned up to look at Houtz. "I swear, I'll get revenge on all of you. I'm going to bring down the military." She grabbed the cot and ran with Madame on her heels. She ignored Houtz's yelling and just ran. She had seen an abandoned shed a couple miles back, and knew she wouldn't be found there.

Inside, plenty of mice ran around. They didn't bother Chris, and now Madame had something to do. "I'm getting revenge, Madame." She said. The cat turned to look at her with a small mouse hanging from her mouth. "But not just from America. I mean think about it, everyone has a military. Everyone. And they all want to have the best so that they can protect their people from attacks. That's stupid! Well I'm going to change that. I'll get rid of the military in every country, and make sure that it stays away. There will be no more wars, no more death, and no more deaf ears. For once, the entire world will actually listen to me!"

Madame sat and watched as Chris started to design new weapons on one of the barn's shelves. "Madame, I'm officially insane." She said as she drew. "You can leave if you want. There will be plenty of people who would like a cat like you." Madame slowly plodded over and jumped onto the shelf. She sat there, staring at her owner. "Good kitty. You and I will be in charge from now on."


End file.
